Conway leads Toyota charge, smoky exit for #17 SMP

Mike Conway has stolen a march in the #7 Toyota Gazoo Racing to take an advantage over Sebastian Buemi in the #8 Toyota, while the #17 SMP Racing drops out of the race from third place.

Both Toyotas have enjoyed relatively untroubled races going into the night, but the drama unfolded directly behind the leaders when the #17 SMP Racing driven by Matevos Isaakyan who tripped into a spin and crashed into the barriers at the Porsche curves.

The Russian driver attempted a radical repair job on his BR Engineering BR1 – AER but it appeared to wreck the car when he tried to get back on track to return to the pits with the rear of the car coming away and sending the engine into a smoky and fiery exit.

That incident promoted the #3 Rebellion Racing into third place with Thomas Laurent leading its fight two laps ahead of the #1 Rebellion sister car which suffered a high-profile clash at the first turn.

The high rate of attrition in the non-hybrids LMP1 class saw the LMP2 leader #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca promoted up to fifth place overall while maintaining its one-lap lead on the #36 Signatech Alpine Malmut and the #23 Panis Barthez Competition who are dicing for second place in class.

In the GTE Pro class, the #92 Porsche has kept clear at the front with Laurens Vanthoor at the front a lap ahead of the #91 Porsche who is trading places for second place while #93 Porsche has dropped down the order due to a mechanical issue.

In the GTE Am class, the #77 Dempsey-Proton Racing Porsche also continues to lead the class with a marginal 15-second lead over the #84 JMW Motorsport Ferrari and the #85 Keating Motorsport Ferrari.